Nafed will soon auction its 25 MF Husain paintings. The Bombay High Court has asked the sheriff of Mumbai to supervise these paintings going under the hammer valued by experts at Rs 100 crore, reports FE.
Guru Swarup Srivastava of Mumbai-based Swarup Group of Industries, from whom the paintings were seized by Nafed, had opposed the auction. For the last several years, the ailing agri cooperative has been trying to convert these paintings into liquid assets.
Nafed sources claim the auction proceeds would greatly ease the financial crisis the cooperative is presently facing.
Though Nafed earned handsome operational profit on purchases of pulses and oilseeds there is no news yet on its revival package. More than two months have passed since the two senior leaders from Gujarat Nafed Vice-Chairman Dileepbhai Sanghani and NCUI Vice-Chairman G H Amin met the Union State Minister Parshottam Rupala who had ensured the presence of two of the top bureaucrats- Additional Secretary and Central Registrar in Delhi to know the status of the Nafed bail-out package.
In the meeting the two senior officials sounded sure of putting up the matter for the Cabinet approval next week. But there has been no news so far.